[Peace-discuss] China vs. USA

[Brussel, Morton K]

Thanks for your remarks. My impression on reading Freeman's piece was that he ha too sanguine an appreciation of  our government’s determination to undermine whatever China hopes to accomplish. Michael Klare on the Tomgram site discusses this: tomdispatch at nationinstitute.org<mailto:tomdispatch at nationinstitute.org>.

The delusions of empire?

On Feb 23, 2019, at 10:54 AM, David Green <davidgreen50 at gmail.com<mailto:davidgreen50 at gmail.com>> wrote:

As he did in the Middle East context, Freeman has well-informed criticism from a "realist" perspective, as he acknowledges:

"George Kennan’s grand strategy of containment was based on the correct judgment that, if isolated for long enough, the defects in the autarkic Soviet system would cause it to fail. China cannot be isolated, and its economy is currently outperforming ours."

Freeman thinks it would be "realistic" and in American "interests" for American planners to recognize China's formidable presence in a less bellicose way. But just as Kennan didn't understand the "realism" and "interests" that led us into Vietnam, Freeman doesn't understand the neolib/neocon "interests" that cause them to more aggressively confront China.

Just as the planners don't accept the "realism" and "interests" of the notion that the U.S. should cut Israel loose, as advocated by Freeman several years ago, they currently don't accept his prudent recommendations regarding China. Given the real interests of the capitalist class, however, this should not be seen as surprising. I would suggest that they take American hegemony much more seriously than he does.

On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 9:05 PM Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
Does Freeman know whereof he speaks?

https://original.antiwar.com/Chas_Freeman/2019/02/18/after-the-trade-war-a-real-war-with-china/

A realistic assessent of the present and emerging rivalry.

—mkb
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